Investigation Results
On the way to the village.
"I'm sorry, Pardo, this was clearly a good opportunity for you and Maple to spend time together..." Disaster said to Pardo.
Pardo waved her hand dismissively. "It's okay, Sister Daisy, there will be more opportunities like this in the future. But, for you, there are still some hurdles to overcome, aren't there?" Besides, Brother Yu Feng has Boss Kevin on his side, so Sister Elysia probably won't succeed so easily.
"Pardo is right. Sooner or later you will have to cross this chasm called 'reality'," Su said. "Fighting the Honkai may not be as you initially thought. It won't only appear in the form of monsters. This is a war, and wars always come at a price."
"I...I just don't understand..." Disaster said, "We fight against the Honkai for the sake of humanity, but we ignore those who have been Corrosion the Honkai, and even put them to death... In the end, what have we been protecting?"
Sue glanced at Disaster, then turned his gaze to Sakura, who was scouting ahead and keeping watch on the surroundings. He said, "Perhaps in the end, we can't protect anything, but if we try to save everyone, then we really can't protect anything."
Su also longed to save those Honkai Corrosion the Honkai. He had tried in the previous world, and continued to try afterward, even using the Thousand Worlds to observe other worlds, but the result was... nothing.
He could only place his final hopes on Kevin and Feng. Kevin, in the observation of the Thousand Worlds, played the role of Heroes in every realm. Feng... This was also something Su cared about a lot, that is, he had not observed Feng's existence at all.
There is only one Maple in the Three Thousand Realms.
So he believed that Feng could do it, but he also wanted Feng to be able to join them in welcoming that tomorrow called "Katsuyo".
"It's like a choice: there are two ships sailing on the sea, and they are about to sink due to an accident. One ship has a lot of people, while the other has very few. You can only save the people on one ship. So what should you choose?" Su said.
Disaster remained silent, recalling Kosma's words. "When faced with two evils, there is no other choice."
She knew Kosma, which is why she didn't understand why Kosma would say that. Now that she thought about it... could it be because Kosma had known about it beforehand?
With mixed feelings, the girl walked into the village with the group.
A middle-aged man appeared before the crowd with several villagers. "Are you the people sent by the government? Hello, I am the village chief here."
As the team leader, Su spoke gently, "Hello, Mr. Village Chief, we are indeed here to investigate. May I ask if there is anything unusual here?"
"Well... I don't know either," the village chief sighed. "It's like it happened overnight. The army took control of the area, and nobody can get out."
At this moment, a man next to the village chief spoke up, "If you ask me, this is the plague brought by that jinx! Their family was the first in the whole village to show signs of that strange disease, and it was only after that that the army came to seal off the area!"
"The plague they brought?" Su asked the village chief. "Where are they now?"
"Hmph, they were driven into the mountains long ago," the man who spoke said. "If it weren't for them, how could everyone have started showing those red lines? They must have angered the mountain god, which is why the mountain god is punishing them!"
"Mountain God? How could something like that..." Before Disaster could finish speaking, Pardo covered her mouth and said to the villagers who were looking over, "Oh dear, Sister Daisy, she means that the old mountain god shouldn't hold anything against ordinary people, right? How could it be the mountain god's punishment?"
"Little girl, you don't understand. If it were just a minor offense, the Mountain God would certainly be magnanimous and not hold it against you. But that family is always thinking of building some kind of ridiculous factory in these mountains," the man said indignantly. "I've heard from people outside that this factory is incredibly polluting; it's like dumping garbage into the Mountain God's house! I opposed it from the start, but you all agreed. Now look what's happened! The Mountain God is furious!"
The village chief sighed and said, "What's the point of worrying about this now? Young man, look..."
"Hmm..." Su thought for a moment, "Please take us to meet that family."
The men around the village chief exchanged glances, none of them showing any intention of moving. Finally, the village chief spoke up, "It's not that we don't want to take you, it's just... those young men who moved their family to the mountains before... have all developed the same symptoms as them, so..."
Su then asked, "So, where did that family move to?"
The village chief pointed in a direction, and then Su and the others all fell silent. That direction was the direction from which the Honkai was originating.
"Let's take a look at the other people who are showing symptoms first," Su said.
On the other side.
Kevin kicked one of the Honkai zombie away, and Kosma immediately followed up with a fatal blow.
Zhu Yufeng also shot through a Honkai zombie rushed towards him, and looked at a tightly closed wooden door.
Elysia stepped forward and pushed the wooden door, looking at Zhu Yufeng and saying, "It's locked from the inside."
Zhu Yufeng and Kevin exchanged a glance, considering that there might still be people inside. They decided it was best not to use weapons to open the door unless absolutely necessary. So, the two of them exerted their strength together and smashed the wooden door open.
What came into view was a dilapidated room, where a young girl was lying on the bed, breathing with difficulty.
The red lines representing the Honkai Corrosion now cover half of her face, and her right hand, which is hanging down and exposed, is also covered with red lines.
Elysia glanced at it and then left the room.
Kosma looked at Kevin and Zhu Yufeng. Zhu Yufeng was silent for a moment, then raised the gun in his hand. Kosma sighed and turned his back to him.
A moment later, the three of them came out of the bedroom and saw Elysia flipping through a notebook. Seeing them come out, Elysia asked, "That child didn't suffer when he passed away, did he?"
Zhu Yufeng replied expressionlessly, "The Honkai Energy has already Corrosion her entire body. At least in the last moment, she didn't feel any pain."
"... Why do they live here?" Kosma asked the question that concerned him the most. In his opinion, this family's situation was entirely due to their residence being too close to the source of the Honkai.
Elysia looked at the notebook in her hand and said, "Judging from the contents of the notebook, the child's mother wanted to build a factory on the mountain to help the villagers get rich... but it was probably because of this, along with some other factors that caused the Honkai, that her family was forced to live here."
"So the source of the Honkai is that factory, right?" Zhu Yufeng walked towards the door. "Let's go, let's take a look there."
Suddenly, Su's voice came through Zhu Yufeng's earphones. "Feng, have you seen the family living on the mountain?"
Zhu Yufeng turned his head to look into the dilapidated house and said, "The two Honkai zombie and the patient with severe Honkai Energy Corrosion all been dealt with."
Su, on the other side, was silent for a moment, then said, "Based on the information we collected, we speculate that there may be a mutated Honkai Beast of unknown level at the source of the Honkai."
"How many infected people are there in the village now?" Zhu Yufeng asked.
"Five people have mild symptoms, twelve have moderate symptoms, and two have severe symptoms," Su replied. "What are your plans?"
"Those with mild infections bring back Fire Moth; those with moderate to severe infections... will be kept under centralized custody until we return to handle them."
"...knew."
After the communication ended, Zhu Yufeng relayed Su and the others' investigation results to them.
"This is out of good intentions..." Kosma sighed, recalling a story Feng had told him: a boy who wanted to be Heroes went around robbing the rich to help the poor, but the poor children he helped ended up being used as money by thugs, and their lives became even more difficult than before.
I always felt that Feng was talking about herself...
But he had never seen Feng when he was a child, so how did Feng know about this?
"Reality is often the most unreasonable thing." Zhu Yufeng said and continued walking towards the factory. "Reality may be unreasonable, but we can choose how to accept it."
After everyone left the house, Elysia placed a crystal flower in front of the house.
In the village.
Su looked down at the children surrounding him, who were looking at him expectantly. One of the boys asked, "Big brother, have your friends seen Xiaoya and her family?"
Su was silent for a moment, then smiled and squatted down to pat the boy's head, "They have been sent to the hospital for treatment, and you may not be able to see each other for a long time."